Thursday, March 11, 2010

It is the photograph that adorns student bedsits across the world. The famed black and white portrait of Ernesto "Che" Guevara perfectly captured his intense stare and brooding good looks, helping establish his myth. But exactly 50 years since Cuban photographer Alberto Díaz "Korda" Gutiérrez snapped the Marxist revolutionary, the image has become the subject of bitter legal battles.

Since Korda's death in 2001, his daughter, Diana Díaz, has pursued companies she accuses of breaching the photograph's copyright by using it in their advertising campaigns. Her father employed a similar tactic when he sued Smirnoff Vodka for the illegal use of the image in 2001, a case that re-established his copyright after 41 years.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Adobe today announced the Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6, Lightroom 2.6 and DNG Converter 5.6 Release Candidates, available for immediate download on Adobe Labs. The term 'release candidate' means this update is well tested but would benefit from additional community testing to provide the highest quality experience for customers working on a variety of hardware and software configurations. The updates add raw file support for 19 new popular camera models, including the Canon EOS 7D and Nikon D3s, with additional DNG support added for the Leica M9 camera model. A full list of the newly supported cameras is below. The Release Candidates also provide a fix for an issue affecting PowerPC customers using the final Lightroom 2.5 and Camera Raw 5.5 updates on the Mac. The issue, introduced in the demosaic change to address sensors with unequal green response, has the potential to create artifacts in the highlight area while using the Highlight Recovery tool in raw files from Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and various medium format digital camera backs. Photoshop Lightroom 2 software is today's digital photography workflow solution, allowing photographers to quickly import, process, manage and showcase images. The Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in provides fast and easy access within Photoshop to the raw image formats produced by many leading digital cameras, and Adobe's Digital Negative (DNG) format is a publicly available archival format for the raw files generated by digital cameras. Pricing and Availability The Lightroom 2.6 Release Candidate is available as a free download for existing Lightroom 2 customers, and the Photoshop Camera Raw 5.6 Release Candidate is available as a free download for existing customers of Photoshop CS4. The DNG Converter 5.6 Release Candidate is also available as a free download for all customers. Click here for more information and to test out the updates: http://labs.adobe.com/. Feedback can be provided on the Adobe User to User forum (http://forums.adobe.com).

Friday, November 13, 2009

Inspired by the classic Magnum AW camera bag, Lowepro unveils its new pro video series, designed for the videographer who needs to work right out of the bag: the Magnum DV AW series.

(Sebastopol, CA, November 4, 2009) – Lowepro, a product design company that builds protective gear for photography equipment and portable electronics, announces the launch of the Magnum DV AW series. Designed for video, super-accessible, ultra-portable and protective, the Magnum DV AW series offers the videographer a practical, hardworking solution.

"This series is designed to address the tasks and needs of today's videographers," said Tim Grimmer, Lowepro product manager. "Inside and out you'll find design elements that speed their work, fit the unique shapes of their gear, make traveling hassle free and provide security for their equipment investments," he added.

The Magnum DV AW bag is quick and easy to work out of. The wide, dual-winged lid opens from the center, providing fast access to gear plus extra security with double zippers, a quick-release buckle and a hook/loop closure. Two roomy side pockets and a fast-access front pocket provide plenty of space for accessories, props and personal items.

The internal dividing system of Magnum DV AW is designed to accommodate different sizes and shapes of gear. Adjustable padded dividers and spacers allow the videographer to easily arrange spaces to fit a variety of video kits. An extra-thick interior base offers protection from the sharp metal baseplate found on most video cameras. And the Magnum DV 6500 AW includes side cut-out padding to cradle and protect an eyepiece.

Magnum DV AW is purpose-built for hassle-free portability. A wrapped and padded center grab handle, trolley sleeve and handcart straps offer multiple ways to transport a heavy load. Each bag comes with Lowepro's patent-pending Vertebral Tech™ Shoulder Strap. This inventive design features a spine-like structure imbedded in a double layer of EVA foam padding. The strap bends to conform to the shape of a shoulder, and no matter how it's worn—left, right, facing up or down—provides long-lasting support and comfort.

The sturdy, premium-quality molded base of a Magnum DV AW bag is stackable and water resistant. Lowepro's patented All Weather AW Cover™ serves as a raincoat for the entire bag, then zips away when not in use.

The Magnum DV 6500 AW offers a padded laptop compartment with adjustable dividers, allowing the professional to download video and edit on the spot.

About LoweproIt started with inventive spirit in a small Colorado garage over 40 years ago. Since then, Lowepro's camera bags have been traveling the world, earning the loyalty and admiration of the best photographers, and setting the industry standard for inventive, purpose-built products. Our collections include professional-grade designs for cameras, notebooks, imaging accessories and portable consumer electronics. It is our passion and privilege to provide accessible, comfortable and protective designs for our customers. Lowepro products are available around the globe, for every climate, for every condition. Wherever you go, chances are you'll find us there. To learn more about our inventive spirit, please visit www.lowepro.com.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

On-the-go photo editing and management made effortless with new Photoshop.com mobile application

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Nov. 6, 2009— Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today introduced the Photoshop.com Mobile for Android™ software, extending Adobe® industry-leading digital imaging technology to users of the Google Mobile™ operating system. The release comes less than a month after the launch of Photoshop.com Mobile for iPhone, which quickly established itself as one of the “Top Free” applications on the Apple mobile platform. The Android application equips consumers with quick and easy image-editing tools, color adjustments and instant photo-sharing capabilities. Photoshop.com Mobile optimizes the camera-phone experience by allowing users to browse for their photos online and on their phone, directly from the application. The application is free and available today at the Android Market.

“Adobe is excited to extend its digital imaging capabilities to Android phone users so they can take control of their growing collections of mobile photos,” said Doug Mack, vice president and general manager of Consumer and Hosted Solutions at Adobe. “Photoshop.com Mobile is a great resource to edit, upload and share photos in a few short moments. It’s the perfect complement to the mobile phone cameras found on Android devices.”

Mobile Photo Sharing and Editing Features Photoshop.com Mobile for Android offers essential, user-friendly photo-editing tools like crop, rotate and flip. The Soft Focus filter can be used to create a subtle blur effect, and for performing color adjustments such as exposure, saturation, tint changes and classic black-and-white. Since all edits and changes can be undone, users can be confident that their original photo will be safe. After making edits on their Android device, users can upload photos from their phone to their Photoshop.com account to view and retrieve their images at a later time from any Internet-connected computer.

In addition, Photoshop.com Mobile for Android offers features only available on Android phones. Users can automatically upload pictures to Photoshop.com albums in the background, even when the Photshop.com Mobile application is not running. Photoshop.com accounts provide 2GB of free online photo storage, which equates to over 1,500 photos. Made possible by the Android API, the new tab-based user interface enables users to view local and online content. Also, the Android Photo Browser makes maneuvering through photos fast and convenient, bringing users’ complete photo collections right to their pockets.

Adobe Photoshop Family Adobe Photoshop® CS4 and Photoshop CS4 Extended are at the heart of the Photoshop family, joined by solutions for users at every level who want to bring out the best in their digital images. Photoshop Lightroom® addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers. Photoshop Elements provides exciting tools and sharing options for photo enthusiasts. Lastly, snap shooters can access Photoshop.com for free online photo editing to simply fix and enhance photos and quickly share those images on social-networking sites or through Photoshop.com online galleries.

Pricing and Availability The Adobe Photoshop.com Mobile for Android application is available as a free download from the Android Market. More information on Photoshop.com Mobile for Android can be found at http://mobile.photoshop.com/android. The application is currently available in the U.S. and Canada only.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

For the photographer carrying two regular or pro size DSLRs with lenses attached to each camera body - or even a 70-200 f2.8 lens attached to any camera body - Think Tank Photo announces the release of the cavernous Urban Disguise ® 70 Pro.

Press Release

Santa Rosa, CA (PRWEB) November 3, 2009 -- For the photographer carrying two regular or pro size DSLRs with lenses attached to each camera body - or even a 70-200 f2.8 lens attached to any camera body - Think Tank Photo announces the release of the cavernous Urban Disguise ® 70 Pro. This is a briefcase style gear bag for traveling in style and protecting camera equipment without attracting attention as an obvious camera bag. The interior accommodates a host of camera configurations that enable photographers to keep all their gear secure in one bag.

The new Urban Disguise 70 holds even a 70-200 f2.8 lens attached to any camera body

Like all of the Urban Disguise shoulder bags, this new model is designed to allow photographers to travel in style while protecting their valuable equipment from prying eyes. They are intentionally designed not to look like camera bags, thus allowing photographers to carry even their larger lenses into potentially perilous settings.

"This design concept is the culmination of years of observation of photojournalists and other photographers who have jury-rigged their bags to decrease their public exposure," said Think Tank Photo founder and lead designer Doug Murdoch. "Whether it is a professional who wishes to maintain a subtle presence in potentially dangerous situations or a serious amateur who wishes to lessen the risk of having their gear ripped off, the Urban Disguise's design allows the right gear to be carried with less fear."

Think Tank Photo is a group of designers and professional photographers focused on studying how photographers work, and developing inventive new carrying solutions to meet their needs. By focusing on "speed" and "accessibility," we prepare photographers to Be Ready "Before The Moment," allowing them to document those historic moments that reflect their personal visions and artistic talents. We design products that help photographers travel easier, take pictures faster, and organize their gear more efficiently.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

New features include an improved user interface to increase accessibility and productivity.

33% introductory discount through December 31st

November 3, 2009 - DxO Labs is pleased to announce the immediate availability of DxO Optics Pro version 6, its award-winning software solution for demanding photographers. This new version provides the best-ever images from extreme ISO shots and further extends optical fault correction, while increasing both accessibility and productivity.

DxO Optics Pro 6 will be offered with an exceptional 33% introductory discount through December 31, 2009.

A New Bar for High ISO RAW ConversionWhile camera manufacturers keep competing for high ISO performance, DxO Labs now offers the image processing technologies which are critical to delivering top-notch image quality from such extreme ISO shots.

In low-light conditions, photographers must choose between using low ISO and risking unnatural flash lighting or camera shake, or using high ISO settings with its typical image noise and loss of colors and details. But now, thanks to a new technological approach, DxO Optics Pro 6 sets a new bar for RAW conversion: photographers can push their cameras to the ISO limits and even beyond - as much as one to two stops above their usual ISO settings! - and still get great photos without any noticeable loss in image quality.

"Advances in DxO Optics Pro 6 are able to significantly reduce the noisy color cast and the low spatial frequency color blotches that typically ruin very high ISO shots and more generally any photo with deep shadows," explains Frédéric Guichard, DxO Labs’ Chief Imaging Scientist. "Removing strong low frequency noise involves processing pixels over a very large neighborhood while preserving fine details. To achieve natural-looking and sharp images, we leave some purely colorless noise in the image, producing a grain that looks strikingly similar to the finest grain from silver halide times."

DxO Labs' new de-noising technology significantly extends the effective dynamic range and best leverages the higher bit-depth that modern sensors provide. Cleaning noise out of dark regions of the images allows photographers to digitally relight them (e.g. using DxO Lighting tool). Overall, with DxO Optics Pro 6 photographers end up with many benefits:

Digital relighting of shadows or dark areas of their images without adding noise.

Extended Optical Fault Correction DxO Optics Pro has long been recognized for its unrivalled automatic optical fault correction based on DxO Optics Modules - laboratory-grade mathematical models characterizing the optical faults of each particular camera & lens combination which are computed for each focal length, each aperture, each focusing distance, etc. More than 1600 DxO Optics Modules are available today and can now be automatically detected and downloaded to the application - and this number is growing at an accelerated pace.

Also, for photographers who desire to adjust optical correction for a creative purpose, or to handle lenses that are not calibrated yet, DxO Optics Pro 6 now provides controls to manually adjust distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberrations, and sharpness (USM) for any lens.

As DxO Optics Pro expert users always look for more precise controls, DxO Optics Pro 6 features an additional fine detail adjustment which specifically deals with the preservation of high spatial frequency texture and details of the images - another demonstration of DxO Labs' consistent effort to bring the best to the optical faults correction so photographers can obtain the most perfect images.

Improved User InterfaceDxO Optics Pro 6's user interface has been revamped to ease the first hands-on experience for beginners, providing them with the easiest RAW Conversion tool delivering best quality without the pain. For experts and professional photographers, productivity and control levels have also been improved.

New features include, among others:

Workspace customization for easier access to the photographer's preferred tools;

Additional Camera SupportBoth the Standard and Elite editions of DxO Optics Pro 6 add support to the Olympus D-SLR family, along with latest Sony and Nikon cameras:

Olympus E3, E30, E410, E420, E450, E510, E520, E620,

Sony A230, A330, A380,

Nikon D300s.

Availability and exceptional introductory price

For Windows : DxO Optics Pro 6 for Windows Standard and Elite editions are scheduled for release in early November 2009 from both DxO Labs' e-store and selected resellers, and will be available at an exceptional 33 % discount until December 31, 2009:

Standard edition: $ 109 instead of $ 169 (or a savings of $ 60)

Elite edition: $ 199 instead of $ 299 (or a savings of $ 100)

All customers who purchased DxO Optics Pro 5 after June 1st, 2009 are entitled to a free upgrade to version 6. All other users benefit from the following 40% discounts until December 31, 2009:

Prices exclude sales taxes and VAT. For Macintosh : DxO Optics Pro 6 for Macintosh is scheduled for release in early 2010. A Macintosh intermediate release, DxO Optics Pro 5.3.6, fully compatible with Snow Leopard, is scheduled for end of November. It will also include support for additional camera bodies.

System Requirements

2 GB RAM minimum

400 MB available disk space

To process RAW images larger than 20 MPixels, a 64-bit operating system with 4 GB RAM is strongly recommended

About DxO Optics Pro DxO Optics Pro is an award-winning automatic image enhancement software for enthusiastic amateur and professional photographers shooting in JPEG or RAW format. World renowned for its unique automated optical corrections (distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberrations, lens softness), and its state-of-the-art RAW conversion, it addresses the entire spectrum of image quality issues, including noise removal, exposure optimization, keystoning correction, color control and dust removal. Its fully-customizable and easy-to-use interface makes it an unrivalled productivity tool, able to process hundreds of images in just a few clicks of a mouse.

About DxO Labs DxO Labs offers products and solutions that provide excellence in digital imaging. In addition to its DxO Optics Pro and DxO FilmPack products for Mac and Windows, aimed at serious and demanding photographers, the company also licenses patented intellectual property serving the entire digital imaging chain:

Friday, October 30, 2009

“This is a great set of free Photoshop brushes that let you add a little sparkle to your designs. There is a variety of sparkle effects included in this set. I think you will find this a very useful addition to your Photoshop brush collection.”